The Kit
The Chef Sole Mate
Rich Stein Sandbanks ’ head chef Pete Murt tells us about the best ways to cook fish
What fish is great to cook with right now ? Lemon sole is really good at the moment – we ’ ve got a dish on at the moment with lemongrass butter , but we ’ re probably going to change that to seaweed butter . Sole and plaice are coming in , too . Which fish should home cooks start with ? If you ’ re starting out cooking , try the fillets – lemon sole , plaice – something that ’ s quick and very easy to cook . Just get a feel for it . With fish on the bone , it ’ s harder to know if it ’ s cooked , but monkfish is really good , especially if you haven ’ t tried much fish because it ’ s quite meaty . It ’ s completely different to a lemon sole which is quite flaky . How do you test when a fish is done ? We ’ re experienced chefs , so we use touch , but you can use probe thermometers . Fillets should be 45 degrees . Fish on the bone will be 55 degrees . What ’ s the easiest mistake to make when cooking fish ? Overcooking . You can cook certain fish slightly under – red mullet is one , John Dory another . The flesh cooks really quickly , and it can be 30 seconds to a minute before it ’ s overcooked . Like meat , fish is really good to rest . If you cook it all the way through in the kitchen , by the time it gets to the customer , it can be overcooked , so we do it a couple of degrees under and leave it rest so it rises to the temperature . Tell us about different cooking techniques and what they bring ... Poaching makes the fish a little bit softer – we ’ ve done monkfish in red wine before . So you ’ ve got the white flesh of the monkfish , but then the outside is red – It ’ s great visually and it keeps the flesh really moist . If the skin ’ s on a fish it will turn to mush if you poach it , but if you grill it , it protects the fish and the skin will go nice and crispy . With whole fish on the bone – like a monkfish tail or a whole bream , they ’ re good roasted . Stuff them with some aromatics , maybe add a bit of white wine , and the skin should go crispy – different herbs in the skin flavour the flesh . Cooking fish in foil creates steam and keeps things moist . We do a dish called hake en papillote in which we put the hake in parchment with tomato and fennel – that ’ s put in the oven and it steams the hake and cooks the veg . Monkfish , because it ’ s meaty , holds up well when you ’ re braising it in a curry or a stew . We also have hake in there – it ’ s not as solid as a monkfish so you have to be careful when you boil it . Finally , deep-fat frying . People love cod and chips in Rick ’ s special batter mix , but you can also fry tempura veg , battered prawns and fishcakes . If you ’ re a home cook it ’ s a bit dodgy heating oil on a stove so use a deep fat fryer that you can get to the correct temp .
Enjoy dishes from Rick Stein ’ s books and TV series at his Sandbanks restaurant . They ’ ve currently got a collaboration with Mr Lyan ’ s cocktails , the number one bartender of the year . www . rickstein . com / sandbanks Rick Stein , Sandbanks , 10-14 Banks Rd , Poole BH13 7QB .
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